Golden Goddesses coverage by What Up Hollywood

The following is an article posted at What Up Hollywood which includes one hour of video footage from our Golden Goddesses reunion event at Larry Edmunds bookshop last October. The evening featured appearances by Ginger Lynn, Kay Parker, Rhonda Jo Petty, Georgina Spelvin, Kitten Natividad, writer Raven Touchstone and adult film historian William Margold. Huge, heartfelt thanks to What Up Hollywood for covering and taping this event, and posting it on your website and youtube. :)

 

Sex Sirens of the Swinging Seventies Sign in at Famous Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood

Remember all those great adult movies of the 1970s, like “The Devil in Miss Jones”? If you didn’t ever watch movies “like that“, better skip this posting. But if you ever wondered whatever happened to those stunning ladies of yesteryear that you spent so much time watching in your miss-spent youth, then you should have been at Larry Edmunds Bookshop when a bevy of stars from adult film history came in to talk about their careers and their lives.

Ginger Lynn

A long discussion, led by author Jill Nelson, introduced 5 of what Jill calls “The Golden Goddesses”, the super stars of sex. Also on hand was Raven Touchstone who wrote screenplays for over 400 adult films. They all had actual stories, she insisted, although I have personally never met a guy who ever remembered much of the story line. The girls, yeah, they remember every luscious inch of them. Star Ginger Lynn remembers the hours she spent with Raven, creating the sex fantasies that made her films so appealing. Face it, you gotta have a script, a story that will tease, build tension, and then deliver the goods, just like any other movie. Raven Touchstone is the Queen of adult screenplay writers, with a boundless imagination.

Kitten Natividad

The ladies signing Jill Nelson’s book “Golden Goddesses“, included Rhonda Jo Petty, Kay Parker, Ginger Lynn, Kitten Natividad, and the legendary Georgina Spelvin. Also on hand to speak was Bill Margold who writes the great back page “Cinema Seen” for LA X…Press. Margold’s reviews of adult films are a hoot, he has covered the sex industry for decades, and he is one of the most entertaining chaps in Hollywood. He knows everyone, writers, producers, directors, all the girls, the guys, and most of all, the stories. As Nelson points out, behind the camera, when the filming is done, these guys and gals are mostly regular folks, with all the same drama, happiness, and challenges that we all face in life. Well, maybe a tad more drama.

A lively crowd listened to Nelson read some excerpts from her book, stories about each of the ladies who were present. Questions came from the audience, and memories and laughter from the film stars. Also on hand was Jim Dawson, local author, and national film reviewer for Velvet Magazine. He is also a spokesman for XRCO, the X-Rated Critics Organization. His great book on Bunker Hill is a must read for anyone who is interested in Los Angeles film history.

So you missed the event on October 16th? Couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse to slip away from the significant other for a couple hours? No problem, just strap yourself into the What Up Hollywood time machine, and watch the entire event. Larry Edmunds still has copies of “Golden Goddesses”, so get your copy before you go blind. At least you’ll have your memories….

Click Here to watch the event directly on youtube.

Click Here to go to Larry Edmunds website and blog.

"Favorite Stars and Star Favorites"

L-R Kay Parker, Rhonda Jo Petty, Kitten Natividad, Jill Nelson,
Jeff, Ginger Lynn, Georgina Spelvin and Raven Touchstone

Last Wednesday, October 16, the Goddesses made their triumphant return to Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood to wow fans and share serious and funny anecdotal accounts of their former lives as Golden ladies of erotic cinema. The six women regaled the crowd with personal reflections, beliefs, thoughts and philosophies, and when each one was asked to name her favourite mainstream movie and describe why, the audience was surprised and delighted. The querie was posed by Peter C., a film enthusiast and writer. Afterwards, Peter penned an essay, a wonderful summation of the evening and book titled "Favorite Stars and Star Favorites" which I have copied and pasted below with Peter's permission. Thank you, Peter, for coming out and for being so gracious.
     Once again, I'd also like to officially thank Ginger Lynn, Kay Parker, Rhonda Jo Petty, Kitten Natividad, Georgina Spelvin (who was unable to join in the festivities last year) and Raven Touchstone for helping to make our intimate reunion evening one of the most memorable and sparkling events since the book's release. I'd also like to thank Emcee Bill Margold, veteran film director Bob Chinn, photographer Kenji, writer/photographer Matthew Worley, Ashley and April from the New York based The Rialto Report, Tom from Cake and Art for designing another spectacular creation, Jeff at Larry Edmunds Bookshop, and all of our friends and fans who came out to support and partake of this celebration. Please follow this link for more photos: Emmnetwork
     Without further adieu, here is "Favorite Stars and Star Favorites" by Peter C.
     
     'Though I met her only briefly at a recent book signing of Golden Goddesses, it was no surprise to learn that Jill C. Nelson, the tender-hearted author of an extraordinarily well written tome and somehow lyrical ode to 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema lists The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter as her all-time favorite “main stream movie.” Nelson, as it turns out, is a lot like Carson McCullers, the novelist who penned the 1940 novel that the film was ultimately based upon. Hunter was the first in a string of books by McCullers to give voice to the rejected, the forgotten, the maligned and the oppressed. Nelson’s 25 (six of whom were at the book signing with her at Larry Edmunds Bookshop) would easily fall into those categories – though those classifications, like most labels, are ill-deserved. John Singer, the Alan Arkin character in the film, is not what he is perceived to be – deaf – and no more – and therefore somehow unworthy of love. In Nelson’s stories about her stars of erotic cinema – there is more there - a whole lot more - to each of her stars. More nuance, more dignity, and more intelligence  – than meets the wide eyed observer. 

     Asking, “What’s your favorite movie?” goes a long way as a kind of shorthand to learn what values resonate with individuals. Rhonda Joe Petty, a one-time look-alike for Farah Fawcett, and still gorgeous at 58, claimed Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto as her favorite – which, if one spends fifteen minutes in her presence, one understands why. “The movie,” Petty said, “is about facing your fears.” Petty is a woman I would not want to cross. She is almost stoic, extremely self-possessed, and when she shared with the audience that, “People who are not OK with my past, are simply not invited into my house,” her tone made it clear that her life has thus far been lived without apology. She is one strong lady, who has obviously faced her fears.
     Also in attendance was Ginger Lynn, who at 50 was the youngest star there. Ginger is a terrific raconteur, and one of her stories was about not being able to find a man who had all the qualities that she required in a male– so - along with a favorite screenwriter, she dreamed up a fantasy – in the form of nine men, and then lived out her fantasies with each before the camera. Her life, at the time, “was about fun. And that was fun!” Ginger is cheerful, exuberant, and decidedly funny – as is her favorite film Arsenic and Old Lace. If one were to look at the poster of the screwball comedy, there is Priscilla Lane bellowing from over the shoulder of Cary Grant – and she might well have been yelling, “This is fun!” For my money, Ginger Lynn would have slipped perfectly into the Lane part.
     The Grand Dame of erotic cinema, Georgina Spelvin, who made the film The Devil in Miss Jones, a remarkable four decades ago, explained that Fantasia is her favorite movie, “Because it has everything in it. It is sheer energy. I could do without Mickey Mouse, but everything else about it rises above animation and it lives in a fantasy of movement. It was totally cutting edge. Nothing else like it had been done before.” Take out the Mickey Mouse reference, and one has a pretty accurate review for The Devil in Miss Jones. Georgina’s favorite film fits.
     Raven Touchstone is an accomplished photographer. When she reflected on her career in the adult film industry, and told of watching Ginger Lynn and Barbara Dare running lines in rehearsal, whilst sipping wine in a hot-tub, she found the actresses in repose to be so incredibly beautiful that Touchstone decided that monumental beauty was beyond words – and in that silent moment of innocent insight, realized that the photographic image was the only way for her to do justice to beauty. The heroine of her favorite movie A Tree Grows in Brooklyn relies on her imagination to capture beauty in much the same way.
     Kitten Natividad recounted her bland experiences as a girl in a sort of unremarkable early life. Then came a time when she “fell down the rabbit hole” and due to excesses that seemed like a good idea at the time, she struggled with drugs and alcohol, but eventually rebounded. Today, she is clean and sober – owns apartment buildings and has made a success in all things considered. Is seems like the ups and downs of Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass – Kitten’s favorite movie – would make sense in a “been there, done that” kind of way.
     The last actress in attendance was Kay Parker. Kay Parker is an exquisitely sensual, wildly articulate and mesmerizingly sincere individual who marveled at the full circle nature of screen celebrity in recounting her love, as a girl, for movie actor Troy Donohue which, as it turned out, was not unrequited.  When she finally met the aging star and told him how much she loved his movies - much to her delight - he told her how much he loved hers. Kay Parker has put her film past into a unique perspective –one that asserts “It is all about love, because the opposite of that is shame. And shame is the condition of being unlovable. And I reject that.” The chapter in Nelson’s book devoted to Kay Parker is called The Conduit – and it describes Parker’s contemporary career as spiritual mentor and transcendence counselor – as one that only a “faith in love” stalwart could embrace. Field of Dreams is Kay’s favorite film, which seems to underscore perfectly her ethereal - part fantasy figure – part earth mother – all woman - essence.
     Willliam Margold acted as unofficial Emcee for the evening. Margold, a raucous individual who is known to industry insiders as “Papa Bear,” and is famous as an archivist and adult film historian (and perhaps less famous, alas, for his extensive and honorable charitable work for adult entertainment veterans who have not fared well) told great stories of on and off set mishaps, legal kerfuffles,  and courage – particularly of the women on the panel, and others like them who disdained “the hypocritical morality,” of those “who dreamed of these ladies, but who would not admit that in public.” Margold, a bear of a man, was a kind of sheriff that night, and apparently has been for his last forty years in and around the adult film industry.  He comes across as a “come and get me, I ain’t going anywhere” character, who, in fact, stood toe to toe against would be agents of the law, when adult films were illegal, and the badge boys were looking to lock up men and women who dared to turn cameras on and take clothes off. It’s no wonder that Papa Bear loves High Noon. He’s the Gary Cooper of “X.”
     At the end of the day, Jill C. Nelson has written a lovely and fascinating book about beautiful women, erotic adventurism, social mores, adult entertainment, the movie business, sex and sexuality.

And it has nothing at all to do with “Porn.”'

Peter C.

Hustler Magazine: "LEGENDARY LAYS"

Goddesses 
Top Row, L-R: Kelly Nichols, Annie Sprinkle, Nina Hartley
Sharon Mitchell, Author Jill Nelson
Bottom Row, L-R: Veronica Hart, Laurie Holmes, Ginger Lynn,
Amber Lynn, Serena
(Historian William Margold is pictured in behind Jill Nelson
holding up a copy of the book.)

Newsflash! The August 2013 edition of Hustler Magazine is available on newsstands now! On page 14, under the Bits & Pieces section of the magazine titled "Legendary Lays," is this great photo by J.R. Reynolds, in addition to a blurb about the book and the Hollywood launch last November:
     Excerpted from the short article is the following:
     "Jill Nelson's book Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema is a great gift for nostalgic poon-hounds who lived through the glory days of porn... A bevy of the performers featured in Golden Goddesses recently gathered for a book-signing event, resulting in this awesome group photo seen here... Golden Goddesses can be purchased at BearManorMedia.com and all major online retailers." Nice! Check it out!

Spotlight on Ginger Lynn

On Friday April 26th, I will be participating in a one hour radio tour at Envision Radio with the beautiful and legendary, Ms. Ginger Lynn. Ginger is very gracious to take time away from her busy schedule to get up extra early on Friday to join the tour with me at 6:00am (her time) Pacific time. She is a true Goddess in every sense of the word. I am moving this spotlight, with excerpts of our interview from the book, to the top. Enjoy.

Ginger Lynn Allen bubbles with childlike exuberance and a zest for life, that is palpable and contagious.  Her kinetic energy, in tandem with soft curves and a sultry coquettish sex appeal, turned the erotic film industry on its ear when she splashed onto the adult entertainment scene in 1983.  A Rockford, Illinois native, Allen is candid about her dysfunctional family history, yet, she has not allowed adversity she suffered as a child to impede or impact her life in a negative way.  Always one to make the best of circumstances and opportunities, Ginger welcomed the move to her grandparents’ home at the age of thirteen after bearing a difficult relationship with her mother.  In 1982, Allen moved to Southern California to accept a job offer at Musicland and was joined by her boyfriend a short time afterwards.  In order to supplement her income, Ginger answered an ad as a stripper for a Bachelor party.  When she subsequently followed up on an advertisement for the World Modeling Agency in Van Nuys, Allen immediately recognized the potential for financial security and stardom. 

As the excepts show, Ginger did not hold back when we spoke during the latter part of 2009 and early 2010, in a three-part interview:

“My parents met in Illinois – got pregnant and had me.  My father is a recovering alcoholic.  Now somehow, when I hear myself saying these words, it sounds like your stereotypical porn star upbringing or background, but I believe that any and every family has their colors, and mine just happens to have a few more colors than most people’s do. 

After my parents married they began to have difficulties.  My father was much too young and my mother was way too nuts.  My sister was born five years after I was.  I believe I was probably about eight or nine when my parents separated for the first time, and that continued off and on -- back together apart again - until I was eleven when they finally divorced.  My mother, being raised by a southern Baptist minister and his wife, was taught to believe in hell and damnation, and God would punish you for everything you did.  The Baptist minister had the philosophy that you spare the rod and spoil the child.  I remember my mother telling me stories that she wore burlap sacks to school.  They were very, very, poor.  Being that she was punished in a physical way growing up, she continued the cycle.  My mother was not only mentally ill but she had tendencies toward physical and verbal violence.” 

“I learned to knit when I was five from my grandmother.  I did a lot of sewing; I did a lot of art projects.  My grandfather used to take me to a shooting range where we would line bottles and cans, whatever we could find, along what was left of the walls of the camp and just shoot.  I grew up riding on the back of my grandfather’s police Harley, and then moved onto my father’s Harley.  We go to Sturgis, South Dakota every year for the bike rally.“

“I always knew that I didn’t belong in Illinois.  I wanted to leave and I always wanted to go to California.  I had bigger hopes; I had bigger dreams.  I wanted everything that there was to have in life.  I wanted something really big and I didn’t know what that really big thing was.  I always said that I would never get married until I was at least thirty.  I wanted to have a career, and even though I didn’t know what that was I knew I wanted it.” 

“1984/1985 is right after my parents found out I had started doing adult films.  I was disowned.  My grandfather was allegedly rolling over in his grave.  My father took my grandmother down to watch my porn.  It was brutal, it was very difficult.  It took a couple of years for us to re-establish our relationship which became stronger, but it was a tough couple of years.  The whole trauma, the drama, the tragedy of my family discovering what I did was brutal.  I love my family, and they basically disowned me.  I wrote a fourteen page letter to my father.  He cried and I cried, and not long after that, I did my very first AVN show – my very first Consumers Electronics Show.  One of my favorite photos is of me wearing my Sears dress in Rockford, Illinois, where I was selling donuts, and here I’m signing autographs wearing the same dress with my dad standing next to me.”

“The most difficult part about the choice that I’ve made in my career is relationships with men.  Those who are completely and absolutely accepting are not the ones you really want to be with.  I meet men who want a relationship but they’re swingers.  When I’m in a relationship, I want to be monogamous.  I want it to be one-on-one.  So for the most part, the ones who are accepting of my career live a lifestyle that I don’t.  My career and my life are two completely different things.  I’m not a swinger and I’m not the sexually free woman that you would think that I am.  I don’t live up to my reputation off camera - as far as my lifestyle.  The civilians that I’ve dated - I’ve been engaged nine times – I just can’t go through with it.  You know, they’ll ask me to change my name, ‘Dye your hair, pretend that you’re somebody else.’  It’s made relationships very difficult.  I’ve had some long term relationships.  I’ve had some fabulous ones, but I don’t know if I’ll ever get married.  I don’t know if the kind of man who would be able to accept me without any hang-ups is the type of man that I would want to be with.”

Spring Book News!

Note: This page was updated on Tuesday April 9th to include additional news items.

This spring and summer, I will be continuing promotion of Golden Goddesses while sharing news of upcoming events, book signings, and articles. A few significant items are on the agenda in the weeks and months to come that I'd like to tell you about: 

* On Monday April 15, I will be taping a one hour interview with radio show host, Al Cole, on People of Distinction at WGRN radio. The interview will air four times in Friday April 26 from 2-6pm Eastern and will be available for access through itunes radio and more. Please see Live365.com

* Note: My interview with Destiny Debbie at Blog Talk Radio will be rescheduled.

* On Friday April 26, I am scheduled to do a one hour Classic Rock Radio tour with Envision Radio at 9:00am Eastern. I am very excited to add that I will be accompanied by the fabulous and legendary Ms. Ginger Lynn. Please visit Envision Radio at their website to inquire about how to listen: Envision Radio. (Note: This program has been rescheduled from its original date, April 12.)

Ginger Lynn

*  On April 19, 20 & 21, I will be at the Exxxotica Expo Convention located at the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel in Atlantic City. We're really excited about making the trek to New Jersey, and look forward to meeting fans and the media during the three day extravaganza. And to add icing on the cake, the ultra sexy and dynamic Golden Goddess herself, Nina Hartley, will be joining me at our booth to sign copies of "Goddesses" during the show and to pose for photos. 
     For more information about the show and how to purchase tickets, please visit the Exxxotica website: Exxxotica 2013 Atlantic City.

* On Friday May 1, starting at 11:00am to 1:00pm, my taped audio interview with Mike White and company at The Projection Booth will be available to listen. Golden Goddess and amazing thespian, Veronica Hart, was also interviewed for this episode discussing her premiere role in A Scent of Heather. To listen, please visit this link: The Projection Booth.
   
*  On Friday May 10th, I will be appearing in my hometown of  Burlington, Ontario, at the Chapters bookstore on Fairview Avenue for the official Canadian debut of Golden Goddesses. The evening promises to be a fun-filled, enlightening and evocative two hours complete with book readings, slide 
                                                                                        

Laurie Holmes

show, Q & A, and refreshments. I'm also very excited to add that one of our very own Goddesses and friend, Ms. Laurie Holmes (aka Misty Dawn), widow of John Holmes, will be joining me in person at the bookstore to meet and greet readers, friends and fans. Space will be limited so please visit the event's facebook page to read details and to RSVP: Golden Goddesses Chapters Burlington. The Burlington Post newspaper will be publishing a feature article about the book and the event, just prior to the signing.
  
 *  In other news, I am pleased to announce that the May issue of Hamilton Magazine will be including Golden Goddesses as recommended reading in the innovative magazine's 'On the Shelf' section. Also, Hustler Magazine will be featuring the book and our November 2012 Hollywood book launch in its 'Bits and Pieces' section in the August issue -- available on stands May 14, 2013. 
     
 *  Please stay tuned for more news once additional plans are made official!

Hustler Hollywood Footage

Monday, Monday. I am pleased to share this terrific footage recently sent to me from screenwriter, Raven Touchstone, who is also profiled in the book. Her videographer friend shot it on the evening of the Hollywood Hustler Book Launch. Thank you, Penny!

Click on the link above the image to view.

Golden Goddesses Book Launch Footage

Golden Goddesses Book Review by John Harrison

I'd like to thank Australian pop culture writer John Harrison (the author of the Headpress published book, Hip Pocket Sleaze: The Lurid World of Vintage Adult Paperbacks) for composing the following review of Golden Goddesses. John's next project, a biography titled Rene Bond: America's Tragic Teen Fantasy, is due out later this year. Please also visit John Harrison's blog:  Sin Street Sleaze. 

Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema, 1968-1985

"I made it a rule, an absolute rule for all of the films that no women were allowed on the crew except for make-up. The technical crew: cameraman, gaffer, grip and sound — I never hired a woman. I don’t like women." (Roberta Findlay)



There is a continuing, undeniably voyeuristic fascination with people who were involved in the golden age of adult cinema (both in front of and behind the camera). Perhaps it’s the fact that they were both pioneers in a field of phenomenally popular (and perennially profitable) entertainment, yet also looked down upon as outcasts by the majority of mainstream society, who were happy to inwardly look but outwardly condemned. Or perhaps it’s partly because the people then had definitive personalities, looks and styles, unlike the mostly cookie-cutter, fake blonde and siliconed boobed porn starlets of today.

The co-author of the definitive John Holmes bio, Inches, Jill Nelson returns with Golden Goddesses: 25 Legendary Women of Classic Erotic Cinema 1968 - 1985. Told in an oral history format, Nelson has selected a diverse range of names to interview - including not just performers but also screenwriters, directors and costumers - which not only give us a terrific insight into the adult film industry during this rapidly evolving outlaw period, but allows us to know them as women, individuals and human beings. The bulk of the credit for this, of course, belongs to Nelson herself, who has obviously been able to win the trust of her subjects enough for them to open up a lot more than they would have in the pages of publications like Adam Film World back in the day.

Picking out highlights is a tough ask. The interviews conducted with actors who have since passed on (Marilyn Chambers, Juliette Anderson, Barbara Caron Mills) resonate with a certain sadness, but also serve as fitting epitaphs. Likewise, the chapter on actor/director Ann Perry (House on Bare Mountain, The Toy Box, Sweet Savage) also has an emotional timbre to it, since Perry’s battle with Alzheimer’s meant that her son had to do most of the talking for her. Elsewhere, Jody Maxwell (often billed as ‘The Missouri Stick Licker’) talks about losing her film virginity to Jamie Gillis and her unique talent for being able to sing while performing oral sex, and Laurie Holmes remembers her life with John and her disdain at the current state of the porn industry.

If I had to pick a favourite chapter, however, it would have to be Nelson’s interview with the normally publicity-shy Roberta Findlay. Along with her husband Michael, Roberta Findlay was responsible for some of the more notorious of the sexploitation black & white ‘roughies’ that emerged from the New York underground of the mid-to-late 1960s, including Satan’s Bed (1965, starring a pre-Lennon Yoko Ono), Take Me Naked (1966, written by and starring Roberta) and the infamous Flesh trilogy (The Touch of Her Flesh, The Curse of Her Flesh and The Kiss of Her Flesh). They later turned to the drive-in and grindhouse circuits, producing the 1971 Manson-inspired filmSlaughter, which had footage added to it by Allan Shackleton and re-released in 1976 as the notorious Snuff (‘The film that could only be made in South America...where Life is CHEAP!’). After Michael Findlay was killed in a 1977 helicopter crash, Roberta went on to direct hardcore features such as Mystique (1979) and Shauna: Every Man’s Fantasy (1985, a tribute to Shauna Grant, who had committed suicide a year earlier), as well as returning to exploitation and horror with the likes of the grimy Tenement (1985) and Blood Sisters(1987). An impressive oeuvre indeed, and Findlay relays a lot of great anecdotes and memories, from hiding film reels at the bottom of a well to avoid the authorities, getting a cyst in her breast removed (a result of years of filming with a 40 pound Panaflex camera) , and her love for dialogue and disdain at actually having to shoot hardcore sex ("I was always disgusted by the sex scenes so I’d say "Okay, everybody screw". That would be it").

Other names covered in Golden Goddesses include such well-known names (at least within the industry and it’s supporters) as Seka, Kay Parker, Georgina Spelvin, Christy Canyon, Nina Hartley, Annie Sprinkle, Ginger Lynn (whose chapter touches on the industry-changing Traci Lords underage scandal), Veronica Hart, Kitten Natividad and Serena.

At 950 pages, Golden Goddesses is an expansive and exhaustive tome, heavily illustrated with over 300 black & white photos (including many candid and childhood snaps), and an essential addition to the library of anyone with more than a passing interest in its subject matter. I only hope that Nelson returns to the adult genre in the near future, as her two works on the subject so far have provided welcome breaths of fresh air in a field filled with uninspiring, sensationalistic and inaccurate studies.

Review Copyright 2013 John Harrison